Nokia Asha 205

Available
now26th November 2012

The Nokia Asha 205 is a low-cost messaging phone, offering
a decent QWERTY-keyboard equipped device for just €62 before tax
and subsidy. It is closely related to the Asha
201 and Asha
302 messaging phones, except this is a bit more basic but conversely
sports a better keyboard.

Available in a dual-SIM or single-SIM version, the Asha 205 has
a 2.4" 320 x 240 pixel screen on the front, along with the
nice looking keyboard. On the back is an ultra-basic VGA resolution
camera. The Nokia Asha 205 supports Bluetooth, has a microSD slot
and a 3.5mm audio connector (with a wired headset in the standard
sales package).

Inside is a relatively large 1020 mAh battery which can provide
up to 11 hours of talktime and 27 days standby time (25 days on
the dual-SIM version). This is a 2G only phone with GPRS and EDGE
data but no 3G or WiFi, although the built-in Nokia Xpress browser
is designed to help with low-speed connections.

There
are preloaded applications for Facebook and Twitter (with a dedicated
Facebook button on the keyboard) and additional apps can be downloaded,
however the Nokia Asha 205 is not a smartphone and its capabilities
are always going to be somewhat limited.

Nokia have introduce a sharing application called Slam with the
Asha 205. The idea is that you can share images and video clips
with nearby Bluetooth handsets without having to mess around with
pairing. However, this seems a bit pointless with the low-resolution
camera of the Asha 205, with pictures limited to 640 x 480 pixels
and a miserable video capture resolution of 176 x 144 pixels at
10 frames per second. Video playback is little better, and the low
speed of the data connection will hamper downloading other media.
So, we don't expect that Asha 205 users will have much of value
to share with Slam.

Although this device has its limitations, it also has its strengths.
In particular, people who do a lot of messaging will probably like
the keyboard, and it isn't exactly expensive.

Nokia says that the Asha 205 should be available by the end of
the year in cyan, magenta and orange colour schemes.